Brad's Bistro

Text: Mark 5:21-43(NIV)
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24 So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

35 While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"

36 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."

37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!" ). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Discussion Questions

Describe the situation that the woman who was healed by Jesus was in. (v.26) Does it seem like Jesus was a last resort for her?

Do you think that it sometimes takes “getting to the end of our rope” before we come to Jesus? When this woman did that, did it take a lot of convincing to receive a healing touch from Jesus? Do you think God is OK with having us come to him in desperation?

Does God ever put us in that situation so we will come to him? How does that relate to the issue of “bad things happening to good people?”

Do you think Jesus wants to effect a deeper healing in us than just taking care of our physical needs? What do you think he meant by “Go in peace?”

Is there some way that you need to trust that Jesus can help you or someone else “Go in Peace and be freed from your suffering?

The goal of this lesson is to explore the role that our faith plays in trusting Jesus to heal our own lives or those of someone we know. It is meant to underscore that Jesus really desires to make our lives better and that he will willingly respond to us even if we’re at the end of our rope or to those we are concerned about, even if it appears that they’re beyond hope.

Describe the situation that the woman who was healed by Jesus was in. (v.26) Does it seem like Jesus was a last resort for her?

There are two healings in this passage. The first part of the lesson focuses on the bleeding woman. Clearly she had been sick for a long time (12 years) and had tried everything, exhausting all of her resources in the process. The sense you get from reading the passage is that she was desperate enough to believe that only touching Jesus’ clothes could heal her.

The second question is kind of a trick one. That fact is, Jesus did nothing to heal her. It was purely her own faith in his power born out of desperation. In that sense, this is an unusual healing narrative in the gospels.

The third question tries to get to the point that the power of God is very available for us. He doesn’t get all huffy and ask, “Why didn’t you come and see me sooner? Why did you wait until I was a last resort?” Here is a good opportunity to make sure your group clearly understands that God wants to heal us. He doesn’t have any ego problems that require us making him our first option. Whatever it takes. This story illustrates that Jesus didn’t even have to know that the woman wanted his healing. The requirements are very minimum, but we do have to believe and we have to come to him. And sometimes it takes getting to where we have nowhere else to turn. If you can, getting some personal stories from members of the group about themselves or people they know will bring this one alive. Sometimes people feel guilty for making God their last resort. Make sure that if anyone is in that situation, that they understand that God is totally OK with that. It happens all the time.

Does God ever put us in that situation so we will come to him? How does that relate to the issue of “bad things happening to good people?”

This gets to the fact that not only is God OK with us coming to him in desperation, sometimes he works in our lives to put us in those situations. If it even takes 12 years of a debilitating illness (like it did for this woman) to come to Jesus, then it would be worth it. So the “bad” things that happen are actually good things if we see them from a larger perspective.

Look at verse 34. What two things did Jesus tell her? What do you think he meant by them?
In verse 34 Jesus told the woman to not only be freed from her suffering, but to go in peace.

Do you think Jesus wants to effect a deeper healing in us than just taking care of our physical needs? What do you think he meant by “Go in peace?”

That is a very full word that can mean both inner peace and tranquility as well as peace with other people and the peace with God that comes with salvation. It could easily mean all of those here. As a bleeding woman, she would have been outcast from her culture as being unclean and could go back to them “at peace” with them. Since belief is the way to a saving relationship to Christ, she certainly demonstrated that. And there’s no doubt she felt way better about life inside. You can explore these in turn if you have the time. Ask, “Do think he meant peace with other people? With God? With herself?”

The other healing has to do with Jairus’ daughter. By the time Jesus got to her, she was dead and the people had, of course, given up on her.

Since the verse we just looked at (34) makes it clear that this passage is about spiritual wholeness as well as physical, I ask the question as to whether we tend to give up on people. The intent is to ask this in a spiritual sense, not whether we give up on people being healed after they’ve died. The point of the passage is that the healing power of Jesus is available even for people who are at the end of their rope as well as for people we know that we’ve given up for dead. If there are people in the group who know friends or family members who they think will never get it together with Jesus, this is a time to assure them that there is always hope.

Is there some way that you need to trust that Jesus can help you or someone else “Go in Peace and be freed from your suffering?

That is the point of the final question. The bottom line is still the same: our faith. We must never stop believing in a God who can heal and never stop praying for ourselves and for others that we will “Go in peace and be freed from our suffering.”